CGI to Transform Air Traffic Control Digital Infrastructure
CGI has signed a seven-year agreement with NATS to improve the air traffic controller’s critical digital infrastructure.
Committed to increasing the resilience, flexibility and scalability of NATS’ infrastructure, the partnership with CGI is the culmination of a year of working together to deliver data centre and hosting services. The company will support transitioning NATS to a hybrid cloud model using an agile delivery approach. In addition, its consulting services and frameworks hope to transform and manage the complex IT portfolio that NATS has.
NATS provides air traffic services at 14 UK airports and manages all UK airspace from two air traffic control centres.
Digital technologies working to transform air services
Organisations worldwide are now starting to consider how newer digital technologies can impact airline operations.
For example, British Airways (BA) in particular recently announced that it plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) to automate parts of its business. Whilst this type of technology is not yet being used at scale within the aviation industry, it could make processes for both staff and customers more seamless in the near future.
Furthermore, the enterprise advantages of hybrid cloud that CGI is hoping to offer NATS typically enables businesses to better leverage digital technologies. These are engineered to boost performances and build agility within the cloud.
Data centres that CGI operate could act as a revolutionary approach to business development. Using the full power of data, enterprise aviation has the potential to be more efficient, sustainable and customer-focused. It could lead to operators making more informed decisions and reduce costs and be more environmentally efficient as a result.
Tim Bullock, Supply Chain and Facilities Management Director at NATS, says: “NATS is currently implementing a transformational technology programme to deliver the next generation solutions that will continue to keep the skies safe into the future and support our customers worldwide and we will be relying on CGI's expertise and proven capability to build and support the digital infrastructure.”
Helping organisations achieve digital transformation goals
Founded in 1976, CGI is among the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world. With 91,500 consultants and professionals across the globe, the organisation delivers an end-to-end portfolio of capabilities, from strategic IT and business consulting to systems integration, managed IT and business process services and intellectual property solutions.
CGI works with clients to help them digitally transform their organisations and accelerate results. With more than 25 years of experience in managing secure data centres, its facilities management services are able to provide a suite of offerings to manage the entire lifecycle of a data centre.
The company also innovates in design, development, green IT and service management to provide its clients with a competitive edge in environmental sustainability, network security and compliance.
In particular, the company leverages local climates and chilled loop and free cooling strategies to decrease energy consumption on data centre cooling. This use of innovative, green, renewable energy resources enables CGI to significantly reduce its demand for electricity.
The NATS collaboration is another step in CGI’s journey towards helping organisations achieve their digital transformation goals. Neil Timms, Senior Vice President of CGI's UK and Australian Space, Defence and Intelligence Business, says: “We will work alongside NATS to deliver flexible, scalable, and safe IT systems that will be vital to the ongoing control and transformation of this complex and critical national infrastructure.
“We are proud to help position NATS for the future while enabling them to deliver greater customer value today."
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